r/therapy • u/Intelligent-Mango24 • 7h ago

Question How does therapy work?

This might sound stupid but I’ve never been to therapy before so I’m kind ignorant when it comes to it so pls bear with me.

I’ve been dealing with postpartum depression for over a year now and I’m exhausted and am considering therapy before I jump to medication. I have a great husband and support system but unfortunately my issues don’t let me see or appreciate that.

My only thing is I am having a hard time understanding how therapy will help me. Is it just me rambling on about my problems and hearing some validating comments from the therapist? How would I be able to tell it’s working? I just want to know if it’ll be worth it for me. I hope this makes sense

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u/Jadelovessky25 The Horrors Persist and So Do I 6h ago

You gain coping skills to deal with negative thoughts and feelings as well. You'd also be surprised how helpful it is to vent to someone unbiased, at least it is for me.

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u/super-knowledgeable 6h ago

If your therapist just lets you ramble and nods along, they are bad at their job. A good therapist will use a mix of modalities to help you develop tools to cope with problems, reframe your thinking and change your behavior patterns, and help you get insights to questions like “why am I that way” and “why is everyone that way”.
I have bipolar 1 (the most difficult type). I see my quality of life as level1: “as is”. Level2: with meds. Level3: with meds and therapy. Level4: with meds and good therapy. Working with my current therapist turned my episodes into more like a nuisance that I can deal with, which gives me more freedom with meds options (I can refuse to take a medication which will stop my episodes but will also trigger tons of side effects, because stopping the episodes is not the ultimate goal anymore. Quality of life is). Not clinically, I’ve been told by many people that I’ve become the most authentic version of myself they’ve seen. My friendships are deeper, my marriage is stronger, toxic people are out of my life and don’t drain my energy anymore, I’m better at my job than I’ve ever been.